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I'm primarily a history wonk instead of a lit wonk, so I'd like to see the plays performed, and barring that, watched.
There are a lot of skills you should learn in English, the ability to sight read out loud would be a good one. The ability to not freak out about speaking in front of a group would be good, too. Live reading Shakespeare would be good for that.
S. wrote plays that were preformed in what was at the time modern costumes and modern English. They were plays that the Elizabethan equivalent of Joe Sixpack could go see and enjoy. Now we've got it so steeped in the mythos of "It's Shakespeare" that we forget these were well written soap operas. We forget they were meant to be seen, not dissected.
For a high school class, watching DiCaprio, who did a very nice treatment of the play, makes perfect sense.
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